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We’re excited about our upcoming Velocity conference! It’s a new name, new location in beautiful Orlando.
Early Bird Pricing ends next week January 25. Don’t miss these must-see panels, presentations and discussions. Each session will include an industry perspective and insight on how you can leverage NGC, Logility, Demand Management and Halo solutions.

For the past 19 years, the RIS Software LeaderBoard has identified the cream of the crop in retail technology, recognizing the best of the best across a variety of categories. The RIS Software LeaderBoard ranks technology vendors based on customer satisfaction surveys across a wide range of criteria, serving as an objective guide to help retailers find the vendors and solutions they need. Regarded as one of the most trusted and well-known rankings for software vendors in the industry, a company’s placement on any of the lists indicates a winning status. NGC Ranks as a Leader in 19 Categories.

It’s the beginning of the new year, which means brands and retailers everywhere are getting ready to make 2019 the best year yet with new opportunities. And on top of every retailer’s New Year’s resolutions list is to achieve retail’s holy grail: the perfect alignment of supply and demand. But how do retailers achieve a goal that continues to be elusive?

New tariffs and a U.S.-China trade war have flooded headlines ever since a new tax was imposed on solar panels and washing machines, key Chinese exports, at the beginning of the year. In early April, China began to fight back and proposed tariffs against the U.S. in response to the threat of additional tariffs on $100 billion in Chinese goods.
Throughout the following months, threats continued to run high, ultimately leading the U.S. to implement duties of 25% on $34 billion of Chinese goods. China retaliated immediately, imposing an equivalent 25% tariff on 545 U.S. products on July 6, which is the move many people regarded as a signal of the trade war’s beginning.

If there’s one factor successful modern-day supply chains have in common, it’s speed. This year, keynote speakers and panelists at the sixth annual Sourcing Journal Summit will discuss the supply chain’s evolution and why a slow and steady strategy won’t win the race. The event, a unique forum for supply chain executives to challenge the status quo and welcome new ideas, is fast approaching on Oct. 11 in New York City.

Apparel Magazine produced its 12th annual assessment of the global sourcing market, Sourcing as a Value Center: Winning with Technologies, last month in partnership with Kurt Salmon, part of Accenture Strategy. The report, which incorporates survey data and results from more than 160 companies, includes responses that “were analyzed to determine what it means to excel in global sourcing and identify key trends shaping the apparel sourcing landscape especially those in the applied analytics and technology space.” The survey points to technology investments by sourcing companies as a key trend shaping the industry – a finding that aligns with NGC’s offering of a digital supply chain that allows customers to realize many of the benefits that were outlined in the report .

U.S. companies that source materials and labor from China may have to make some changes to their sourcing strategies now that the U.S. added 25% tariffs on more than $30 billion of Chinese shipments earlier this month. The tariff spike doesn’t seem to be slowing down either; the Trump administration threatened up to $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, scheduled to take effect after Aug. 30, pending a consultation process.

In the first episode of Sourcing Journal’s new podcast, NGC’s Mark Burstein, Robert D’Loren, chairman and CEO of NGC customer Xcel Brands, and John Thorbeck, CEO and founder of Chainge Capital, discuss how retailers can successfully improve speed to market without sacrificing quality by executing a total transformation of the supply chain.

Every year, WhichPLM publishes a buyer’s guide, highlighting PLM industry trends and predictions. It comes as no surprise to NGC, that this year, WhichPLM says that the approach to replacing your PLM has shifted.
The guide compares the process to “replacing the operating system of a computer that everyone in the office shares: it requires an understanding of not just the capabilities of the different software environments themselves, but the needs of a variety of different stakeholders. Most importantly, it requires an acknowledgement that, to get the most out of a new environment, you need to fully understand the limitations of your existing one from every possible angle, and you need to identify how you and your colleagues visualize things changing in the future.”

Keeping supply and demand in a constant state of perfect equilibrium is the #1 goal of every supply chain team. To deliver the right products at the right time to the consumers who want them, companies must continually rebalance supply and demand, then react with speed and agility to constantly changing demand signals. They must also improve supply chain execution in order to optimize sales, profit and inventory positions.